ID NEEDED PLEASE

[Icedog]

I have some sort of brown/red alga growing on my substrate. I took a sample of it and put it under a microscope - see pics below:



Any thoughts as to what this might be?

My latest testing:
pH 8.6
SG 1.026
NO3 0
PO3 0.03
dKH 9.6

I'm dosing iodine and NoPox. And I've been slowly lowering the NoPox dose and feeding more to get the nitrates up a bit. I really thought the alga were dinos, because of my low nitrates. But these don't look like any of the dinos I've seen pix of.

Don't know if it makes a difference, but I'm also having issues with some zoas closing up - figured it was due to the low nitrates, but now I'm not sure.

Would appreciate any help!

 

[BairCorals]

I have some sort of brown/red alga growing on my substrate. I took a sample of it and put it under a microscope - see pics below:



Any thoughts as to what this might be?

My latest testing:
pH 8.6
SG 1.026
NO3 0
PO3 0.03
dKH 9.6

I'm dosing iodine and NoPox. And I've been slowly lowering the NoPox dose and feeding more to get the nitrates up a bit. I really thought the alga were dinos, because of my low nitrates. But these don't look like any of the dinos I've seen pix of.

Don't know if it makes a difference, but I'm also having issues with some zoas closing up - figured it was due to the low nitrates, but now I'm not sure.

Would appreciate any help!

I wouldn't dose any nopox, you have 0 nitrates! Anytime your n03 and p04 go out of wack, you're gonna have algea growth.
My zoas always close up if my nitrates get low, they love "dirty water".
I'd try and get your nitrates up to about 10 and p04 to about 0.1 and let her sit there for a week and see if your mystery algea slowly disappears. Bottoming out nitrates was an old style of reefing that I think caused more issues than not. 100:1 ratio of n0304 seems to pop up everywhere there is a healthy system.
But I'd get it close to 10 and .1, then set your dose up and see how much your n03 drops in a week, adjust and test adjust and test. Probably start on the lower dose as to not shock the system.

Hope it all works out for you!

 

[Icedog]

I wouldn't dose any nopox, you have 0 nitrates! Anytime your n03 and p04 go out of wack, you're gonna have algea growth.
My zoas always close up if my nitrates get low, they love "dirty water".
I'd try and get your nitrates up to about 10 and p04 to about 0.1 and let her sit there for a week and see if your mystery algea slowly disappears. Bottoming out nitrates was an old style of reefing that I think caused more issues than not. 100:1 ratio of n0304 seems to pop up everywhere there is a healthy system.
But I'd get it close to 10 and .1, then set your dose up and see how much your n03 drops in a week, adjust and test adjust and test. Probably start on the lower dose as to not shock the system.

Hope it all works out for you!

Thanks for the advice - I have stopped the NoPox.

But any ideas as to what I was seeing under the microscope?

 

[BairCorals]

Not a clue! But I have been eyeballing some microscopes after seeing this post so I can be more educated on what is what and what I've done to fix said what lol